These Female Metal Heads Will Blow Your Mind

When I was little, my musician dad would sometimes let me tag along on his gigs, and we’d visit recording studios staffed by tons of long-haired stoner dudes. I loved coming with him, but there was one particular studio that I hated with a passion, because to enter, you had to pass this massive poster of Ozzy Osbourne:

I was scared shitless of this poster, and I’d close my eyes and grip my dad’s hand every time we passed it. There may or may not have been tears, I’ll be real with you. That was my first experience with the metal genre, but it was def not my last. Since then, I’ve had a weird fascination with the music and, even more so, the culture and style. The massive amounts of eyeliner, the shaggy hair cuts, the omnipresent beat-up leather jackets: it’s visual catnip. And though the ladeez are way underrepresented in the metal world, there are still some female-fronted and all-female bands that’ve made it big-ish along the way. And since ’70s and ’80s metal style is so fantastically gross and intense, I figured it was necessary to do a little photo round-up of some of the lesser known metalhead women of the past. So get out your AquaNet and hold on to your jeweled crucifix: it’s about to get nazzty in here.

(Missdemeanor, from Brooklyn)

(A full-band shot of Missdemeanor)

(Long Island’s Poison Dollys, on the cover of Kerrang!)

(One of the Poison Dollys, really working her leather and hopefully avoiding a yeast infection.)

(Original Sin)

(L.A. rockers Leather Angel)

We salute you, you fearless, black-clad, big-haired metalhead ladies. Now and forever.

*And incidentally, the most extreme and bonkers expression of this genre is “black metal,” a style that was pretty much born in Norway in the ’90s. Black metal is all about intense anti-Christian views, a nihilistic worldview, and ultra-violence—some band members have been arrested for murder and burning churches. If you’re even a little bit interested in this whole batshit crazy scene, I would aggressively recommend Until the Light Takes Us, a 2007 documentary about black metal’s megastars (and megacriminals).